The previous model was already the sporty vanguard of the brand – and this applies to the second generation Audi R8 even more. The newly conceptualized high-performance sports car has been made even tauter and stronger, both on and off the race track. Tom Kristensen takes the Audi R8 on the racetrack and explains the car's highlights.
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Audi R8: Combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 12,3 - 11,4; Combined CO2-emissions in g/km: 287 - 272.

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): “It’s great that this year even more spectators traveled to the Red Bull Ring than last year. That speaks for the popularity of the DTM in Austria. I think that no-one regretted having attended this event because the fans got to see a turbulent DTM race. Our drivers, too, contributed their fair share to this and, in view of yesterday’s qualifying session, four Audi cars in the top eight are a decent result.”

Dieter Gass (Leiter DTM): “At first glance, the result looks like damage containment. If, following the qualifying result, anybody had told us yesterday that we’d have four Audi cars in the points today we’d have been relatively pleased. But in Jamie Green’s case, a lot more would definitely have been possible. There was a communications problem between him and his team and he drove one lap too many on option tires. As a result, Jamie deprived himself of the chance to battle for the podium. He definitely had the potential to do so.”

Timo Scheider (AUTO TEST Audi RS 5 DTM), 5th placeTires: option/standard“Following a difficult Saturday, I at least had a positive effect – that I managed to advance with the same time as Gary Paffett: I took that as a stroke of luck. Advancing from 14th place to fifth in the race is a great feeling for me and the squad. We had enough trouble and problems in the first five races. I hope that we’ll be able to turn this around now and to have fortune on our side in the second half of the season.”

Adrien Tambay (Playboy Audi RS 5 DTM), 6th placeTires: option/standard“This was one of my best races. I hadn’t expected much from grid position 20, not even by starting on option tires. It was a tough race; my car was very good and really fast. We made no mistakes and overtook a few cars. Our pit stop was superb too. Many thanks from me to the whole team because we extracted a good result from a difficult situation.”

Jamie Green (Hoffmann Group Audi RS 5 DTM), 8th placeTires: option/standard“It was very disappointing to have received a drive-through penalty, which costs about 16 seconds here. That threw me out of the battle for a top position. I still finished in eighth place in the end; it’s good to have still scored points. I battled for victory, ran on option tires one lap too many – I paid the price for it.”

Miguel Molina (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM), 11th placeTires: standard/option“I think we drove a good race. But starting the race on option tires would definitely have been the better choice. I was able to overtake a few cars in the beginning – that was the most important thing. Now we have to continue to work hard and understand what happened yesterday in qualifying. If we do, then things will be going better again in the next race at the Nürburgring. In eleventh place, we just barely missed scoring points here. But as I said, we need to continue to work hard.”

Mike Rockenfeller (Schaeffler Audi RS 5 DTM), 13th placeTires: standard/option“A very frustrating weekend. It already started in qualifying, where I could have squeezed out more. Then you try to gamble a little with the strategy. We started on standard tires, hoping that the safety car would be deployed, but it wasn’t. In the race, I lost a lot of time with Félix da Costa, who slowed everybody and pushed me onto the grass. I didn’t think that was very clever on his part. In the end, I had a good pace but that doesn’t help after having lost a lot in the beginning. We’ve got to make sure that we’ll manage a good qualifying session again at the Nürburgring.”

Edoardo Mortara (Audi Sport Audi RS 5 DTM), 16th placeTires: standard/option“It was a difficult race. I’m disappointed because I’d been confident especially before this race weekend. We were too slow during the whole weekend. Plus, there were some special decisions by the stewards of the meeting ...”

Nico Müller (Audi Financial Services RS 5 DTM), 19th placeTires: option/standard“Actually, the strategy was really good. The pace was there on both types of tires. The only problem was the start. I wasn’t so optimistic in that respect because we had a problem with the clutch – that immediately caused me to lose a few places. But afterwards, I advanced really well. Until I received a drive-through penalty for allegedly having driven too fast under yellow. Although I can see absolutely no reason for this: I completely lifted. But because a lap before I’d overtaken two cars in this sector, I apparently wasn’t half a second slower under yellow. Following the penalty, my race was practically over. Whether or not the penalty makes any sense like this is anyone’s guess. Today, points would have been possible. In the end, I finished where I started: I’m disappointed!”

Hans-Jürgen Abt (Team Director Audi Sport Team Abt Sportsline): “It was a difficult race. The starting base was bad. We weren’t able to make up ground on our option tires anymore and are still pleased to have finished in the top ten with two cars. We need to do some analysis now and work on having a better pace in qualifying in order to improve again in the next races.”

Ernst Moser (Team Director Audi Sport Team Phoenix): “Bringing both cars into fifth and 13th place from grid positions 14 and 17 wasn’t so bad. We tried both strategies: starting on option tires and on standard tires. In the end, starting on option tires proved the right choice when looking at where Timo (Scheider) finished. In ‘Rocky’s’ (Mike Rockenfeller) case, things went wrong in the beginning, we lost so many places and time. It was impossible to recover that at the end, although he still drove the fastest race lap. I’m happy for Timo that he broke his duck here and was the best Audi driver.”

Arno Zensen (Team Director Audi Sport Team Rosberg): “It was a shame. We actually had a good starting base with sixth place in qualifying. Nico (Müller) had a problem with the clutch, which didn’t exactly strengthen his self-confidence. He was running far at the rear of the field after the start. Then he received a drive-through penalty. It was difficult for him to drive so slow on option tires under yellow. We’ve got to take another close look again to see if this was justified. Jamie (Green) drove a good race. Shortly before the pit stop, there were some communications problems; that’s why we pitted a lap too late. That’s what he received a drive-through penalty for – that was a real shame.”

Further information about the official fuel consumption figures and official, specific CO2 emissions of new passenger cars can be found in the “Guide to fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and electricity consumption of new cars,” which is available free of charge from all sales outlets and from DAT (Deutsche Automobil Treuhand GmbH), Hellmuth-Hirth-Strasse 1, 73760 Ostfildern-Scharnhausen, Germany (http://www.dat.de).